I hope some day I will write a dissertation about Levinas and intercultural contact. I don't have time now, but at least I can express my thoughts on this blog. Levinas says that a relation becomes ethical when I meet another person. The image I create of the other can never coincide with the real person. An individual is unique, he can't be reduced to the (supposed) characteristics of his group. So I should have an open mind for the real person and let go of my prejudices anytime.

8/06/2005

Why is the Islam blamed for evil deeds of some of it's followers?

So another Orkut discussion about the same topic (a question posted in Discourse Analysis and Racism, and my reply)...

why Islam is blamed for evil deeds of its followers 8/5/2005 2:32 PM

when no one questions other religions for the practice of their followers?why such dishonesty\unjustice\prejudice is shown to Muslims and their religion?

I think it's mainly because of the terrorist attacks in name of the Islam.

People get frightened when this happens and they don't always see the difference between normal Muslims and terrorists. So people get suspicious towards everyone with an appearance that looks like that of terrorists. And they also think that most Muslims support the ideas of terrorists, that they don't go as far as committing these attacks themselves, but that their thoughts are almost the same, just as violent.

All of this is not true of course. There's in general no reason at all to be suspicious towards people with a Muslim appearance. And for most people it's just a personal belief and way of life, the idea of taking revenge for what the west is doing in Iraq etc, such ideas are just as far away for them as for non-Muslims.

Prejudices are often against a group of people who are easy to recognize. People are frustrated, afraid and / or angry and they want to have a clear group which they can blame for their frustrations.Then they start to divide between an in-group - the good people of the group they belong to - and an out-group of bad people. The polarisation between these groups grows.People start to think more simplistic, in black and white. The own group is completely good (the civilized, morally just, peaceful, developed people from the west) and the out-group is completely bad (the barbarian, violent, underdeveloped, immoral immigrants, Muslims and other people from the east).

The terrorist attacks are very bad, both for Muslims and non-Muslims, because they accelerate this process of increased prejudices, generalisations, polarisation and xenofobia.So I am very much worried about the increase in terrorist attacks. Muslim extremists will see the attacks in London, 9/11 etc. as their examples / idols and they can see that the attacks are easy to cary out and that they can be powerful that way. So many attacks will follow, I'm afraid.

8/6/2005 9:04 AMAnd this at it's turn leads to more hatred. The more terrorist attacks are taking place done by Muslims, the more non-Muslims feel justified to say that the Islam is violent and dangerous.

And the more the west starts to fear and hate the east, the more the terrorists find that they achieve what they wanted, so they think that their actions are successful.

The only way to stop this way downwards is by what Sikander said here many times: We have to live in harmony, Muslims and non-Muslims, we have to be united against terrorists. So we should be an in-group together, the only people in the out-group are the terrorists.

We shouldn't let our lives be lead by the terrorists, we shouldn't be lead by fear and hatred as they want it. So each time you think something about Muslims, you can ask yourself if it's a realistic nuanced rational thought, based on facts, or if you are exagerating because you are afraid or because you have started to hate the Islam.

If you take your time to think about it you can discover your own prejudices and generalisations and you can put away these thoughts and replace them by realistic thoughts.